An article appeared
in the Washington
Post on May 21 and is important for a number of reasons.

First of all the
number of arrests on the border may indicate that the number of illegal
aliens who are attempting to run our nation's borders has declined.
I use the term “may” because the Border Patrol only arrests
a percentage of the total number of illegal aliens who attempt to circumvent
the inspections process by entering our country without inspection.
The question is whether or not the Border Patrol is doing as diligent
a job of apprehending the illegal aliens seeking to enter our country
illegally.

I raise this question,
not out of any disrespect for the valiant Border Patrol agents who stand
watch on our nation's borders 24/7 but rather because I am of the belief
that after the outrageous prosecution of Border Patrol Agents Ramos
and Compean who were arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned for doing their
jobs, you have to wonder how eager agents would be to place themselves
in jeopardy- not only in terms of facing down heavily armed smugglers
but also from the government that employs them?

Furthermore, think
of how demoralizing it must be for the agents to listen to statements
made by House Speaker Nancy “The CIA Lied To Me” Pelosi,
when she actually stated that it was “Un-American” to arrest
illegal aliens. This is further exacerbated by Secretary of Homeland
Security Janet Napolitano who is ordering ICE agents to only seek to
penalize employers who intentionally hire illegal aliens while doing
virtually nothing to punish the illegal aliens.

Incidentally, a
reduction in the number of illegal aliens running our nation's borders
is hardly the same thing as declaring that the border is secured. Even
if the number of illegal entrants is reduced, thousands of illegal aliens
are still entering our country each week. If, as the report indicates,
the numbers may be down because there are far fewer illegal aliens running
our borders because of the economic situation, then it raises the real
possibility that if there was an incentive for illegal aliens to run
our borders, then the Border Patrol would not be able to stop the flood
of humanity from crossing our border illegally.

Now, Senator Chuck
Schumer is apparently seizing the opportunity to declare our border
to be secure so that his pet project that would accord millions of illegal
aliens lawful immigration status and a pathway to United States citizenship.

As usual, Chuck
Schumer is wrong and exemplifies what is wrong with Washington and what
has been wrong with the immigration system for decades. Schumer is focused
on a strategy that would flood the United States with millions of new
voters who would, presumably, be predisposed to vote for parties put
up by the Democratic Party. As I have often stated, I have been a registered
Democrat for as long as I have been voting. However, I do not want any
party to become a predominant force in our country. Our government needs
to have the give and take of political debate and competing perspectives
and ideologies.

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When companies
enter into agreements to engage in price fixing and other such agreements
that run contrary to our system of capitalism, the executives of those
companies face (or used to face) prosecution for anti-trust violations.
Our nation and our successes can be traced to competition. Competition
is important in government as well as in the corporate world.

Of course for the
politicians, it is all about winning and seizing power. So, that being
said, Schumer and his cohorts are focused on any strategy that will
give them the most control over Congress and the political process.
Even, apparently, if it endangers our system of government and the safety
of our citizens and the security of our nation.

So Senator Schumer
concocts this argument that the border is now secure and so, in his
judgment, it is now time to provide millions of illegal aliens with
the keys to the kingdom!

As I have noted
on so many previous occasions, it is important to remember that these
illegal aliens entered our country in violation of law. We know nothing
about them. We don't know their true nationalities, we don't know their
true names or dates of birth. Therefore we do not know and probably
won't ever know if they have criminal histories in any other country.
We don't know and have no way of knowing if they are fugitives in any
other country. We also have no way of knowing if they are affiliated
with any criminal or terrorist organization. We are also clueless about
their intentions.

What we do know
is that they are here illegally and that Senator Schumer wants to provide
them with the highest honor a nation may bestow upon a foreign national:
citizenship!

Some of the plans
for a wide-ranging and sweeping amnesty program for millions of illegal
aliens require that the aliens in question demonstrate that they have
lived illegally in our country for a minimum period of time. Consider
how insane and unworkable this requirement is. We are dealing with illegal
aliens who, most likely, have worked under various assumed identities.
They may have rented an apartment under an assumed identity or simply
sub-letted a room in an apartment or simply paid someone to let them
sleep on a bare, filthy mattress that was located on the bare floor
of a room in a tenement building.

How could our bureaucrats
possibly figure out how long that person was in the United States? Remember,
there would be no way of doing field investigations, only to run a name
that an alien provides that he (she) claims relates to him and a set
of fingerprints.

Under such a system,
someone whose name was on a terror watch list who had never been fingerprinted
previously in this country could provide a false name and because the
name he provides would come up “no record” and his fingerprints
would come up “no record” would be almost immediately provided
with a temporary identity document he could use to obtain a driver's
license, a Social Security card and even a library card. He could open
bank accounts, get credit cards, buy a car and get a job anywhere he
wanted.

Such a person could
enter the United States and, within a couple of days, purchase all sorts
of bogus receipts that would satisfy the overworked adjudicators at
USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) that he was
here for as many years as would be needed to qualify for amnesty.

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The problem is
that no one is talking about the huge problem that immigration benefit
fraud poses to any sort of amnesty. Right now fraud runs rampantly through
the immigration benefits program and this overburdened system would
be the system that would be given the responsibility of adjudicating
tens of millions of applications for amnesty!

Incidentally, what
do you think this sort of incentive would do to the arrest statistics
on the border when millions of aliens realize that they can make a “run
for it” and charge the border?

At present, USCIS
processes more than 6 million applications for all sorts of benefits
each year. They have fewer than 700 investigators to conduct investigations
to try to create a semblance of integrity to that broken system. Imagine
now that they will have to process 3 times as many applications. Chaos
would not adequately describe what would happen!

Here is another
thought for you.

When we drive our
cars we are familiar with the concept of speed limits. This is done
to help improve safety. If a motorist drives too fast he may find that
situations arise too quickly for him to respond. On roads with extreme
curves the speed limits are generally further reduced to make certain
that the drivers don't drive off the road. I recall seeing signs that
said “speed kills.”

Nearly 50 years
ago a young attorney by the name of Ralph Nader wrote a book about the
Chevrolet Corvair. He was concerned about that car because of safety
issues. The title of his book was “Unsafe at Any Speed.”
That title could just as easily apply to USCIS today.

The adjudications
process cannot be done to rapidly without compromising safety also.
The safety of our nation and our citizens. Yet Chuck Schumer and company
apparently don't care about safety, only votes!

If you read the
911 Commission Report you will see that it was determined that the terrorists
used immigration fraud and visa fraud in order to enter our county and
then embed themselves, so as to hide in plain sight among us.

It is also important
to remember that an estimated 40% of the illegal aliens in the United
States did not run our nation's borders but rather entered through ports
of entry and then, in one way or another, violated the terms of their
admission into the United States. The entry of these aliens into the
United States has absolutely nothing to do with the Border Patrol.

At present there
are only a few thousand ICE special agents who are charged with enforcing
the immigration laws for the interior of the United States. It is estimated
that there are fewer than 6,000 ICE agents for the entire country and
they are also responsible for enforcing Customs laws. That means that
there are probably no more than 4,000 ICE agents who are dedicated to
enforcing the immigration laws for the entire United States of America.
To put this in perspective, the NYPD has about 37,000 police officers
to enforce the laws for the City of New York.

That "small
army" of police officers is widely accepted as the principle reason
that New York has the lowest crime rate of any large city in the United
States. ICE has fielded roughly 10% the number of ICE agents for the
entire country as their are police officers for New York City!

Until and unless
Schumer and those who advocate for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
are willing to address the issue of the major inadequacies of the hobbled
USCIS, any bill to furnish illegal aliens with amnesty will create a
national security nightmare of unprecedented proportions.

It is of immeasurable
importance that you contact your elected representatives and make your
concerns known.

The GAO has issued
numerous reports on various aspects of immigration benefit fraud and
other failings of the immigration system. You can see
a list of these reports here.

It is time for
our leaders to put the nation's needs and the futures of our citizens
ahead of their own selfish goals and agendas.

I urge you to forward
that link to both of your senators and to the member of Congress who
represents you and your family.

We the People must
make our voices heard!

Right now the administration
and members of Congress are moving forward with their plans to create
an amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens currently living in
our country in violation of law and we know absolutely nothing about
them.

The open border
advocates are providing hefty campaign contributions for the politicians
and making their voices heard. They are determined to foist Comprehensive
Immigration Reform (CIR) on this country and our citizens. If they succeed,
there will be no way to undo the damage or reverse the process.

Many people complain
that the politicians don't listen to us. The point is that few Americans
are even trying to be heard. The apathy and silence of the vast majority
of Americans must end!

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I do not know of
anyone who would walk into a restaurant and tell the waiter or waitress
to serve him whatever the waiter thought he should eat. We are all very
specific about the food we want to eat and how we want it prepared.
We need to be no less specific where our government is concerned.

Michael
W. Cutler graduated from Brooklyn College of the City University of New
York in 1971 with a B.A. in Communications Arts and Sciences. Mr. Cutler
began working for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in
October 1971 when he entered on duty as an Immigration Inspector assigned
to John F. Kennedy International Airport. In August 1975 he became a Criminal
Investigator (Special Agent) for the INS at NYC.

He rotated through
virtually every squad in the Investigations Branch. From 1988 until 1991
he was assigned as the INS representative to the Unified Intelligence
Division (UID) of the DEA in New York. In 1991 he was promoted to the
position of Senior Special Agent and was assigned to the Organized Crime,
Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) which required that he work with
members of other law enforcement agencies including the FBI, DEA, ATF,
U.S. Customs and local and state police as well as law enforcement organizations
of other countries including Israel, Canada, Great Britain and Japan,
to conduct investigations of aliens involved in major drug trafficking
organizations. He retired from the INS in February 2002, after a career
that spanned some 30 years.

Finally, Michael
Cutler has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including
Lou Dobbs, Fox News, MSNBC and many other television and radio news-oriented
programs to discuss the enforcement of immigration laws.